Last night in our haunt, there was a small issue with over-sized groups going through. In my experience I have seen larger groups of 6 or 8 people at a time but hardly ever more. We had groups of 8 and 10 go through because there were lines and our "door guy" wanted to push people so they didn't have to wait. I have instructed him that waiting to get in the haunt builds the fright. But I think he doesn't see it. Our actors complained that they couldn't scare some groups and people were leaving disappointed. Eventually, I put the foot down. Then the groups became smaller and the screams returned. We are still working out the kinks of starting a new haunt but this kind of thing is an easy fix. So, how about a quick survey: What is the maximum number of people in each group that you let through your haunt?

I refuse more than six, even if its seven, I split them three and four. They can talk with their friends about it outside the haunt, they paid to get scared and sometimes don't realize their own ignorance in coming in large groups and wanting to go through all together, so if we want to give them the show they deserve, then they darn well better get split up, and if they complain, i like to educate them and tell them why and usually they end up being more grateful for looking out for them than being mad for splitting them up. Also, you might want to make it clear to your door man who his boss is..... you have your title for a reason.

We've had to experiment with this same issue over the years. This being our 12th season at our haunt, we've got our groups down to a science and they are based solely on the number of people that can comfortably fit in any one of our rooms at a time. (standing side by side) We have one particular spot in the haunt that is restricted more than the rest and it has proven to be our determining factor. We can fit 5 people in this space standing side-by-side without anyone being on top of the other, so this has become our magic number. Our door man knows that ONLY groups of 5 or less can be let in at a time. If a large group shows up to by tickets they are told that Only 5 people can enter at a time, NO Exceptions. They can choose to pair up in smaller groups but if there are only two people in a group, our door man will attempt to pair them up with another group of two or three people to keep from only sending 2 people in.

For our haunt 2 in too few and 6 is too many. "5" is the magic number but anything form 3-5 will work. hope this helps.

I refuse more than six, even if its seven, I split them three and four. They can talk with their friends about it outside the haunt, they paid to get scared and sometimes don't realize their own ignorance in coming in large groups and wanting to go through all together, so if we want to give them the show they deserve, then they darn well better get split up, and if they complain, i like to educate them and tell them why and usually they end up being more grateful for looking out for them than being mad for splitting them up. Also, you might want to make it clear to your door man who his boss is..... you have your title for a reason.

What more answer do you need? Just also tell them "The closer you stay together the better it is; YOU can ruin the best effects by being too far part".

Our haunt is half outdoors, and 2 indoor attractions. The one which is more of an indoor maze we try to use 6 as the max. We get some groups who have very little kids and want to go together and they get scared of anything so we may allow 8 max since 2 small kids account for 1 lol. Our last HH we have a max of 6 since it is 3 rooms with skits that allow a max of 6 to make it work. Our 2 trails and cornfield max of 6 and groups get split 4 and 4 etc. We also have signs posted For maximum scares and safety up to 6 guests allowed at a time. People have been reading it and form their own groups like 2 and 3 so its been going well.

This is our first year on this scale. And I have found out, "that if you build it....they will com-plain!"
We were doing groups of six. Well we had 700 people show up at the same time and they proceeded to bitch to the point of us breaking our own rule and allowing up to 10 people because the wait ballooned to 2 hours. We are in Florida and according to these people its hotter at our place than at Halloween Horror nights or Howl-o-scream. These people are the biggest whiners, so they were mad at the wait and then made because we made the groups larger. What do we do?

On heavy nights I do groups of 10. The scares are set up for it for it is not to bad of an inconvenience. If the areas are 50/50 actor inside the walls of hairpin turns working through curtains and windows and the other half in the open so the guests can see them then it works out pretty good. the actor in the open can bunch them back up (like a sheep dog not by asking- just driving). Plan for your heaviest nights not for the regular nights.
Allen H

Knowing what your throughput will be like should come into play when designing scares. If you have an unexpected surge in attendance during the season, having a "plan B" for high traffic flow nights can help too.
For example: Universal and Howl-O-Screams both have massive attendance and have to run conga lines. Their scares are designed around that; you often see the same scare set up twice back to back with two different actors doing the same thing. They work off each other and "leap frog" so to speak by doing the same scare at alternating intervals to the line so that everyone can experience it. So while you may be looking ahead and see one actor scare people in front of you, an actor that skipped the people in front of you comes out of nowhere and scares you. Likewise, the actor you saw scare folks in front of you will remain in hiding as you pass.
This does require more actors and potentially more space, but look at your show and you may get some ideas about anything like this or similar you can do to help keep up quality on busy nights.